The present invention relates to an improvement in the function of a separating claw provided in a separating module of an image producing apparatus for the separation of a transfer material.
The transfer material fed to a photoreceptor surface is attracted to the photoreceptor surface which has a toner image on it by the function of a transfer electrode to transfer the toner image from the photoreceptor surface onto the transfer material. The transfer material is separated from the photoreceptor surface discharged by the charge of a separating electrode and is then sent to a fixing station.
The discharge of the separating electrode mentioned above, however, can not insure perfect separation with every kind of copy paper and in every atmospheric condition of temperature and humidity, and incomplete separation sometimes occured.
Accordingly, a mechanical separator is usually provided at the processing site below the position of the separating electrode to reinforce the separation of a transfer material.
For this mechanical separator, a plurality of claws are provided at the separating site which touch the photoreceptor surface softly by the rotating moment of their weight or with the aid of spring attached to the one end of the claw.
In cases like this, the residual toner on the photoreceptor surface sometimes drops down onto the transfer material surface while being scraped off with the claws; and it causes the damage of the toner image quality.
The claw itself wears easily due to constant contact with the photoreceptor surface and is also apt to scratch the photoreceptor surface when the claw is smudged and coated with some foreign material such as toner, paper dust, and etc.
To prevent these problems, a separating claw having a releasing mechanism driven by a solenoid coupled with a lever member having a rotating axis in order to avoid constant contact with the photoreceptor surface has been proposed.
By reducing contacting time of the claw with the photoreceptor surface only to when a leading edge of the transfer material passes by the separating site, the damage to toner image quality caused by the dropped toner, the damage to the photoreceptor surface, and the wear of the claw caused by the constant contact with the photoreceptor surface can be solved. Even with this idea, however, when the coupling part for the rotation of the claw or sliding part of the claw will be smudged with spewed toner, more load in the rotation of the claw is needed. Solving this problem forcedly, increasing the capacity of the solenoid, requires more space to install the solenoid.
An object of the invention is to propose an improved separating mechanism where the claw can be operated with a solenoid of small capacity which doesn't require much space.